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>Chapter 56. <ACRONYM
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>BKI</ACRONYM
> Backend Interface</H1
><DIV
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><DL
><DT
><B
>Table of Contents</B
></DT
><DT
>56.1. <A
HREF="bki-format.html"
><ACRONYM
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>BKI</ACRONYM
> File Format</A
></DT
><DT
>56.2. <A
HREF="bki-commands.html"
><ACRONYM
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>BKI</ACRONYM
> Commands</A
></DT
><DT
>56.3. <A
HREF="bki-structure.html"
>Structure of the Bootstrap <ACRONYM
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>BKI</ACRONYM
> File</A
></DT
><DT
>56.4. <A
HREF="bki-example.html"
>Example</A
></DT
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><P
>  Backend Interface (<ACRONYM
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>BKI</ACRONYM
>) files are scripts in a
  special language that is understood by the
  <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
> backend when running in the
  <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"bootstrap"</SPAN
> mode.  The bootstrap mode allows system catalogs
  to be created and filled from scratch, whereas ordinary SQL commands
  require the catalogs to exist already.
  <ACRONYM
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>BKI</ACRONYM
> files can therefore be used to create the
  database system in the first place.  (And they are probably not
  useful for anything else.)
 </P
><P
>  <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>initdb</SPAN
> uses a <ACRONYM
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>BKI</ACRONYM
> file
  to do part of its job when creating a new database cluster.  The
  input file used by <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>initdb</SPAN
> is created as
  part of building and installing <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
>
  by a program named <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>genbki.pl</TT
>, which reads some
  specially formatted C header files in the <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>src/include/catalog/</TT
>
  directory of the source tree.  The created <ACRONYM
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>BKI</ACRONYM
> file
  is called <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>postgres.bki</TT
> and is
  normally installed in the
  <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>share</TT
> subdirectory of the installation tree.
 </P
><P
>  Related information can be found in the documentation for
  <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>initdb</SPAN
>.
 </P
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